HD 

9198 

U54 

S339 

1896 

MAIN 


UC-NRLF 


*B    273    SbS 
JR  BUSINESS   GREED 


CO 


J 


LIBRARY 

OF  THK 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Received 
Accession  No.  (o^ST)         •    Cla*s  No- 


I  Our  -IBus'mess     GreecQ 

WE  GO   BY   IT 

AND 
SO   MUST   OUR   EMPLOYEES 


A   SCHILLING   &   COMPANY 
SAN   FRANCISCO         * 


Copyrighted  1896  by  A  Schilling  &  Company 


U54S331 
IBflfe 


STAND    BY! 

A  battle  at  sea.  Everybody  is  under  orders. 
The  plan  of  battle  has  been  laid  out  by  our 
admiral.  Each  man  is  given  his  part  to  do — 
Captain  R  among  the  rest. 

It  is  not  a  brilliant  plan%  A  greater  admiral 
would  have  devised  a  better;  but  all  pull  together 
and  it  looks  as  if  we  are  going  to  win. 

But,  in  the  middle  of  the  combat,  a  bright 
idea  strikes  Captain  R,  who  is  a  clever  tactician, 
and  he  runs  off  with  'his  ship  to  carry  out  that 
idea. 

At  that  moment  the  battle  begins  to  turn  in 
favor  of  the  enemy  and  we  are  defeated.  We 
had  depended  upon  Captain  R,  but  where  his 
ship  ought  to  have  been  there  is  a  hole  and  the 
enemy  gets  through,  and — we  lose  the  battle. 

Afterwards,  when  our  fleet  gets  together  again, 
we  have  a  council  of  war  and  Captain  R  is  taken 
to  task  for  not  doing  his  duty.  His  reply  is: 


"  I  had  a  better  idea  and  went  off  to  execute  it." 
The  admiral  says:  "  Captain  R,  you  are  a  genius. 
Your  idea  would  have  been  far  better  than  mine 
if  you  had  suggested  it  beforehand;  but,  when 
we  are  fighting  a  battle,  every  man  should  keep 
his  place,  and  not  run  off  with  his  own  idea. 
You  have  neglected  the  first  duty  of  a  soldier: 
to  obey.  You  will  be  dismissed  from  the  ser- 
vice." 

MANY   FAILURES    IN    BUSINESS— WHY? 

Statistics  show  that  95  per  cent  of  men  in 
business  for  themselves  fail.  Many  of  these  men 
enter  the  employ  of  others,  and  do  well. 

This  shows  that  few  men  are  good  managers; 
that  it  is  much  easier  to  be  a  specialist  than  to 
keep  your  mind  alert  on  the  many  different 
sides  that  a  business  presents  to  the  owner. 

It  shows  moreover  that,  when  a  man  cannot 
gain  position  for  himself  solely  by  his  own 
efforts,  he  can  gain  strength  for  himself  by 
association  and  co-operation  with  others;  and 
that  is  what  the  best  of  large  business  houses 
can  give  him  —  co-operative  establishments  — 
establishments  existing  for  the  benefit  of  all  who 


work  in  it  and  for  it.  Whatever  strength  the 
house  receives,  part  of  it  goes  to  the  salesman; 
whatever  strength  the  salesman  receives,  part  of 
it  goes  to  the  house  and  comes  back  again  to  the 
salesman,  etc,  etc,  ad  infinitum. 


SUCCESS   IS   NOT   ACCIDENTAL. 

The  success  that  a  business  meets  with  is 
determined  by  its  policy,  and  the  faithfulness 
with  which  that  policy  is  adhered  to  by  the  firm 
and  employees. 

What  is  called  success  is  often  failure,  com- 
pared to  the  success  that  might  be  if  the  policy 
were  better  and  were  more  faithfully  carried  out. 
But  if  one  were  obliged  to  choose  between  a  good 
policy  followed  in  a  hesitating  and  shifty  man- 
ner, and  a  middling  good  policy  forced  right 
through — carried  out  to  the  end — the  one  to 
choose  is  the  middling  good  policy.  It  is  fortu- 
nate that  this  is  so;  for  it  is  much  easier  for  a 
merchant  to  pursue  a  steady  course  than  to 
invent  the  right  one. 

The  best  way  to  win  success  is  to  take  the 
most  direct  road  you  see  and  follow  it — not  to 


turn  off  to  the  right  or  left  because  it  looks 
pretty.  In  short,  keep  your  compass  in  hand 
all  the  time. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  METHOD  AND  HARMONY. 

Every  employer  runs  a  risk.  He  has  at  stake 
his  money,  the  value  of  his  business,  and  his 
business  experience — the  earnings  of  a  lifetime. 
He  has  chosen  (say)  a  certain  policy — not  the 
wisest,  but  a  good  policy.  He  employs  men  to 
help  him  carry  out  that  policy,  not  their  own, 
not  anybody  else's;  to  do  things  that  he  wants 
done,  but  has  not  time  (and  maybe  not  ability) 
to  do  himself. 

The  unspoken  agreement  between  employer 
and  employee  is  that  the  employee,  so  long  as 
he  remains  an  employee,  shall  be  faithful  to  the 
policy  of  his  employer.  It  would  be  ridiculous 
to  employ  people  on  any  other  basis. 

If  you  come  into  our  employ  and  work  against 
our  policy,  you  are  not  paying  us  what  you 
promised  to  pay.  No  matter  how  much  good 
you  may  be  doing  along  your  own  lines,  you 
have  no  right  to  work  counter  to  our  plans. 

For  example,  you  know  we  never  give  sole 


agencies — control  of  our  goods  —  to  any  one. 
You  might  see  a  chance  to  make  a  very  good 
customer  by  giving  a  merchant  sole  control  of 
our  goods  in  a  small  town.  You  may  be  right — 
for  that  town — but  it  is  not  the  best  policy  for 
our  territory  at  large;  and  it  would  be  incon- 
venient and  unjust  to  make  this  exception. 

"  Yes,"  you  may  say;  "  but  I  do  not  agree  with 
your  policy.  I  am  hampered  by  the  conditions 
with  which  you  surround  me.  My  trade  demands 
certain  modifications." 

Or  you  may  say :  "  Your  policy  stultifies  me— 
gives  me  no  discretion." 

To  the  latter  we  say,  If  your  policy  makes  you 
less  of  a  man,  you  should  say  so  to  us;  and,  if  we 
cannot  convince  you  that  your  interests  as  an 
employee  and  as  a  man  lies  with  us,  you  cer- 
tainly ought  to  leave  our  employ.  We  do  not 
desire  to  succeed  at  the  expense  of  anybody's 
manhood. 

To  the  former  we  say,  You  are  right.  Our 
policy  is  not  so  good  as  it  might  be.  Five 
years  ago  it  was  not  so  good  as  it  could  be. 
Five  years  hence  it  will  not  be  so  good  as  it 
can  be.  It  will  never  be.  But  five  years  ago  it 
was  the  best  that  we  then  knew  how  to  adopt. 


To-day  it  is  the  best  we  now  know  how  to 
adopt.  Five  years  hence  and  forever  hence  it 
will  be  the  best  that  we  shall  know  how  to  adopt 
at  the  time. 

NOTHING   IS   PERFECT. 

To  every  man  life  offers  opportunities  and 
also  limitations;  he  must  take  his  share  of  both. 
This  applies  to  your  situation  with  us.  We 
offer  you  great  support.  It  feels  very  nice  to  be 
working  for  a  large  house  with  a  good  reputation, 
and  one  speaks  of  it  with  pride;  but  that  is 
nothing  but  a  gratification  to  you  unless  you 
understand  what  a  large  house  can  do  and  what 
a  small  house  can  do. 

A  large  house  can  offer  a  large  assortment;  a 
small  house  cannot.  A  large  house  has  ample 
stock;  a  small  house  has  not.  A  large  house  has 
a  popular  brand;  a  small  house  has  not — if  the 
small  house's  brand  were  popular,  it  would  not 
be  a  small  house.  A  large  house  has  great 
facilities  for  importing,  cabling,  manufacturing, 
knowing  the  sources  of  supply;  a  small  house 
has  smaller  facilities.  A  large  house  is  known 
wherever  its  representatives  travel  or  wherever  it 


advertises;  a  small  house  is  known  very  little. 
A  large  house  can  take  risks;  a  small  one  dare 
not.  And  the  larger  a  house  becomes,  the  better 
facilities  become  in  every  direction;  and,  because 
expenses  grow  less  as  business  grows,  a  large 
house  can  work  on  a  much  smaller  profit  than  a 
small  one. 

Take  it  all  in  all,  a  small  house  is  greatly 
handicapped  against  a  large  one,  unless  the 
large  house  makes  a  bad  mistake  in  policy  or 
management.  In  this  case  a  small  house,  intelli- 
gently governed,  may  gradually  crowd  the  larger 
establishment  to  the  wall,  just  as  in  some  locali- 
ties a  clever  salesman  for  a  small  establishment 
might  overcome  one  of  our  weaker  salesmen. 
And  yet  even  here  we  have  the  advantage  of  the 
small  concern  because  the  facts  are  so  strongly 
on  our  side,  if  the  salesman  will  only  state  them 
and  prove  them,  how  our  house  has  grown,  what 
makes  houses  grow — satisfying  merchants  (mak- 
ing money  for  them),  how  our  goods  are  in 
demand,  how  our  name  is  a  guarantee  of  good 
faith,  etc,  etc. 

Even  a  weak  salesman,  backed  by  a  strong 
house,  can  overcome  a  strong  salesman  backed 
by  a  weak  house,  if  he  knows  his  strength. 


Here  is  another  thing  that  a  small  house  can 
do  that  we  cannot  do:  if  we  were  a  small  con- 
cern and  had  only  a  few  dozen  accounts,  we 
might  possibly  treat  those  different  accounts  in 
different  ways.  But  we  have  several  thousand 
accounts,  and  if  we  started  to  treat  them  in 
different  ways,  if  we  started  to  take  one  attitude 
toward  one  merchant  and  another  attitude  toward 
another  merchant,  we  should  soon  become  thor- 
oughly mixed  up. 

If  \ve  gave  our  attention  to  exceptions,  we 
have  got  to  take  our  attention  from  other  parts 
of  our  business  that  have  got  to  be  done: 
importation,  buying,  manufacturing,  packing, 
etc.  all  of  which  go  to  m»ake  up  money  value, 
our  main  policy. 

Let  us  make  this  clearer.  We  cannot  make  a 
proposition  to  a  merchant  and  then  listen  to  his 
proposition,  and  haggle  with  him  and  finally 
compromise.  You  name  our  terms  and  methods 
to  the  merchant,  and  he  takes  them  or  leaves 
them. 

Suppose  you  were  buying  a  piano  (perhaps 
you  don't  know  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
fixed  price  for  a  piano  in  most  stores),  you 
might  bargain  and  bargain  and  never  know 


when  you  have  come  to  the  bottom.  Whatever 
price  you  get,  you  would  not  be  satisfied  with 
it;  you  would  suspect  that  you  could  have  got  it 
for  less;  you  would  be  dissatisfied  with  the  result 
of  your  haggling;  you  would  not  respect  or  have 
confidence  in  your  merchant. 

We  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  respect  and  con- 
fidence of  the  merchants  of  this  coast.  We 
would  rather  lose  a  few  sales.  For  upon  this 
confidence  we  base  our  expectations  for  future 
trade. 

Small  houses  on  the  other  hand,  who  twist 
themselves  here  and  there,  gain  no  strength;  for 
they  weaken  thereby  their  business  foundation- 
confidence. 

POLICY. 

Our  policy  is  fixed;  it  cannot  be  changed  by 
argument. 

As  creed  is  the  basis  of  a  religious  system,  so 
is  policy  the  basis  of  a  business  system.  As  the 
devotees  of  a  certain  religion  should  stand  up 
for  that  creed,  so  should  the  advocates  of  our 
business  stand  up  for  our  policy. 

But  who  shall  lay  out  the  policy? 


As  few  as  possible,  with  tlie  suggestions  of  as 
many  as  possible.  We  want  all  the  wisdom  and 
experience  on  the  subject  that  we  can  possibly 
get;  but  it  is  too  much  to  expect  that  the  many 
men  in  our  employ  should  agree  upon  one  policy. 
Some  one  must  do  the  deciding,  and  this  the  firm 
will  do  for  three  reasons: 

1.  The  firm  takes  the  risks. 

2.  The  firm  sees  the  whole  business;  is  not 
interested   in    any    one    part    of   it   rather   than 
another. 

3.  The  firm  has  had  more  and  wider  experience 
than  any  of  its  employees. 


OUR   POLICY   IS   GOOD. 

It  is  a  good  one  on  the  whole;  the  policy  of 
giving  money's-worth  to  the  merchant  and 
enabling  him  to  give  full  money's-worth  to  his 
customers.  It  has  not  those  cheap  allurements 
that  "take  the  eye"  of  the  short-sighted  dealer. 
It  is  hard  to  make  the  dealer  believe  that  this 
actually  is  our  policy,  because  almost  every 
merchant  pretends  to  follow  it  and  doesn't. 
But,  although  our  policy  is  hard  to  introduce, 


it  is  so  square  and  so  clearly  on  the  merchant's 
side,  that  the  longer  a  merchant  sells  our  goods, 
the  more  convinced  he  becomes  that  it  is  to  his 
interest  and  to  his  customers'  interest  to  keep 
it  up. 

Our  policy  is  so  good  that  on  the  whole  we 
venture  to  say  there  is  not  a  better  in  the  \vorld. 

OUR   POLICY    IS   SIMPLE. 

It  is  also  simple  and  easy  to  understand.  It 
becomes  complicated  only  when  we  try  to  modify 
it  to  meet  special  demands.  Everything  that  we 
do,  every  idea  that  we  adopt,  is  in  line  with  this 
one  policy  of  giving  first-rate  money's-worth: 
the  Quantity  -  Purchase,  Schilling '  s  Best,  your 
money  back  if  you  want  it — these  are  all  differ- 
ent ways  of  expressing  this  policy. 

Our  business  has  but  one  aim:  to  make  money 
for  ourselves  by  making  money  for  the  merchant. 

Not  only  is  our  policy  simple  and  easy  to 
understand,  but  we  make  it  possible  for  you  to 
show  the  merchant  that  this  is  actually  our 
policy.  You  can  meet  his  doubts  in  almost 
every  instance  with  the  various  tests  and  our 
money-back  guarantee  of  quality.  You  can  say 


to  the  merchant  that  Schilling's  Best  tea,  coffee, 
baking  powder,  soda,  extracts,  and  spices,  are 
the  best  for  the  money.  You  can  do  more  than 
this;  you  can  prove  it  to  him  in  almost  every 
case;  you  can  prove  to  him  also  the  money 
value  of  the  Quantity-Purchase.  In  fact,  every 
statement  that  we  authorize  you  to  make  to  the 
merchant  is  so  strongly  backed  up  with  incon- 
trovertible proofs  that  there  is  almost  no  loop- 
hole through  which  the  merchant  can  escape 
from  the  truth — unless  he  will  acknowledge  to 
you  that  he  is  not  conducting  his  business  on  the 
money's-worth  basis. 

(By  the  way,  you  should  not  consider  yourself  ready  to 
talk  with  a  merchant  until  you  possess  what  seems  to  you 
absolute  proof  of  the  superiority  of  every  one  &f  Schilling's 
Best  and  of  the  Quantity-Purchase  and  Quality-Folder  to 
ordinary  methods. 

Almost  all  our  statements  can  be  proved  if  you  believe 
them  and  have  the  intelligence  to  do  it.  If  you  are  in  doubt 
about  any  point,  you  should  make  it  known  to  us.) 

If  the  grocer  acknowledges  to  you  openly  or 
tacitly  admits  that  he  does  not  want  to  give  a 
good  money's-worth,  you  can  discuss  the  point 
whether  money's-worth  is  the  proper  basis  for 
business  success.  You  have  seen  many  success- 
ful and  many  unsuccessful  grocery  stores,  and 


have  made  your  own  observations.  You  can 
reason  out  the  matter,  and,  in  the  case  of  Schil- 
ling's  Best  especially,  show  him  how,  unless  his 
trade  is  of  the  very  lowest  and  most  unintelligent 
class,  Schilling '  s  Best  and  money-  back  -if-  his  - 
customer-don  t-like-it  cannot  be  otherwise  than 
successful. 

YOU   ARE   OUR   LAWYER. 

In  short,  you  are  our  lawyer  and  our  case  is 
strong.  The  difference  between  this  case  and  a 
law  case  is:  you  are  arguing  not  only  in  our  in- 
terest, but  also  in  the  interest  of  your  apparent 
opponent — that  is,  instead  of  having  one  client 
and  one  enemy,  you  have  two  dients.  All  you 
have  to  do  is  to  make  the  situation  clear  to  the 
other  side. 

If  you  cannot  convince  the  merchant  that  the 
basis  of  his  business  also  should  be  money's- 
worth;  if,  in  spite  of  your  arguments  backed  by 
the  experience  of  the  world,  he  cannot  be  made 
to  see  his  real  interests,  you  are  still  in  a  position 
to  minister  to  his  apparent  interests.  He  wants 
to  sell  something  that  will  "  do  "  and  on  which 
he  can  make  a  good  round  profit.  As  you  know, 


we  can  also  supply  him  with  such  goods  to  bet- 
ter advantage,  on  the  whole,  than  any  other 
concern  on  the  Coast,  and  upon  this  line  you 
can  fall  back,  if  you  consider  it  necessary. 

At  first  glance  this  does  not  appear  to  be  in  line 
with  our  policy;  because  it  is  money's-worth  in 
a  very  limited  sense  —  that  is,  it  is  apparent 
money's-worth  to  the  dealer  and  not  at  all  to  the 
consumer.  But  you  must  remember  that  Rome 
was  not  built  in  a  day,  and  neither  will  your 
success — and  our  success — be  built  in  a  day; 
your  customers  will  not  see  the  point  all  at  once. 
Until,  therefore,  they  do  see  the  point,  we  must 
give  them  the  best  value  that  they  will  take;  and 
so  we  shall  keep  their  attention  and  their  good- 
will until  we  can  persuade  them  to  adopt  the 
best  policy,  money's-worth  throughout,  Schil- 
ling's Best.  (At  this  point  let  us  say  parenthet- 
ically, that  the  greater  your  success  with  Schil- 
ling's  Best,  the  greater  your  ability  as  a  salesman 
and  your  value  to  us,  for,  in  establishing  Schil- 
ling's Best  on  your  territory,  you  are  carrying 
out  our  policy  of  money's-worth.) 

You  see  our  policy  is  simple  and  easy  to 
understand. 

But,  simple  as  it  seems  to  be,  do  not  imagine 


that  it  is  the  work  of  a  moment's  thought  and 
that  we  shall  throw  it  aside  on  a  moment's  con- 
sideration. It  is  the  result  of  years  of  experience 
and  thought.  Nothing  can  affect  it  but  more 
experience  and  more  thought. 

YOU  ARE  OUR  CRITIC  AND  CO-WORKER. 

It  is  very  easy  to  criticise  such  a  policy,  for  it 
is  not  perfect  and  never  will  be.  There  are  flaws 
in  it  which  interfere  with  you,  your  fellow- 
salesmen,  and  us.  Your  weakness  is  felt  by  us, 
and  by  your  fellow-salesmen;  our  weakness  is 
felt  by  all  our  salesmen. 

It  is  clearly,  then,  to  your  interest  to  remedy 
all  defects  in  our  policy  and  the  business,  and,  at 
any  time  when  you  see  a  mistake  or  a  possible 
improvement,  to  let  us  have  the  benefit  of  your 
experience. 

See  how  illogical  your  position  is  if  you  say: 
"  I  don't  believe  in  that  policy,"  or  "  I  don't 
believe  in  this  particular  part  of  the  policy,"  and 
then,  when  called  upon  to  criticise  our  methods, 
you  have  nothing  to  suggest. 

It  takes  very  little  intelligence  merely  to  com- 
plain and  to  censure.  It  takes  more  intelligence 


to  criticise  what  has  already  been  done.  It 
takes  still  more  to  invent.  The  proper  spirit  of 
criticism  is  to  respect  the  work  uf  the  inventor 
and  try  to  make  it  better.  Censure  without 
suggesting  a  better  way  is  worth  very  little. 

If  you  don't  believe  in  our  policy,  we  don't 
want  you  to  recommend  it  to  the  merchant. 
That  would  be  asking  you  to  tell  lies  for  us.  We 
are  not  liars  ourselves  and  we  don't  want  to  make 
liars  of  you.  If  you  cannot  conscientiously 
recommend  our  policy,  you  ought  to  be  working 
for  another  house,  one  that  you  believe  in  from 
top  to  bottom.  You  are  worth  more  to  such  a 
house;  you  are  worth  more  to  yourself  when 
working  sincerely. 

But  we  do  not  believe  there  is  anything  in  our 
business  policy  that  can  offend  the  most  delicate 
conscience.  The  only  difference  that  we  can 
conceive  of  rising  between  you  and  us  is  the 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  is  best,  not  as  to 
what  is  right.  None  of  you,  we  think,  can  take 
exception  on  moral  grounds  to  our  money-back 
guarantee,  to  Schilling * s  Best,  and  to  the  Quan- 
tity-Purchase, which  are  the  back-bone  of  our 
business.  Nor  can  you  take  exception  on  moral 
grounds,  to  the  various  projects  or  to  any  of  our 


business  methods.  Some  of  them  may  be  a 
mistake  in  policy,  some  of  them  may  not  be  in 
accord  with  our  main  policy.  We  ourselves, 
while  at  times  complaining  of  you  for  pulling  in 
a  direction  opposite  to  ours,  may  be,  in  some 
instances,  pulling  counter  to  the  main  policy. 
This  certainly  is  not  good  for  you  or  for  us. 
It  ought  to  be  changed  if  it  is  so;  you  should 
let  us  know. 

You  would  like,  if  you  could,  to  work  for  a 
perfect  house.  You  would  like  it  if  you  could 
simply  step  into  a  store  and  let  the  merchant 
hand  you  a  big  written  order,  shake  hands  with 
him  and  go  out.  That  would  be  very  nice. 
But  there  is  no  such  house;  and  in  this  world  at 
least  you  must  put  up  with  the  best  conditions 
with  which  you  can  surround  yourself.  But  the 
brave  and  earnest  man  does  not  scold  the  world 
because  it  is  not  perfect;  neither  does  he  accept 
the  world  as  perfect  when  it  is  not.  He  just 
goes  to  work  and  keeps  his  mind  open  for  new 
and  better  things,  and  literally  makes  the  best  of 
it  all.  He  endures  it  because  he  has  to,  but  he 
takes  the  first  chance  to  make  things- better. 

Your  condition,  in  relation  to  us,  is  better 
even  than  that  of  the  brave  and  earnest  man 


in  relation  to  the  world.  He  can  mend  things 
more  or  less,  but  he  cannot  get  out  of  the 
world  very  well.  You  can  mend  things  in  our 
business  more  than  a  man  can  change  the  con- 
ditions of  his  life,  and  if  you  cannot  change  them 
enough,  you  can  choose  another  firm  and  other 
conditions. 

We  said  our  lines  are  fixed.  Yes,  they  are; 
no,  they  are  not.  They  are  fixed,  in  the  sense 
that  we  shall  not  make  exceptions  as  long  as  we 
are  following  these  lines,  and  so  long  as  we  be- 
lieve in  them.  They  are  notyf^W,  in  the  sense 
that  we  shall  change  them  when  we  see  better 
lines,  and  see  the  way  to  follow  them.  For  this 
purpose  we  ask  your  suggestions.  If  you  can 
prove  to  us  that  we  are  wrong  in  any  case,  that 
there  is  a  better  way,  and  that  that  way  is  prac- 
ticable, we  shall  take  it  up;  but,  although  we 
may  be  making  a  mistake,  and  there  may  be  a 
way  to  correct  it,  still  the  correction  may  cause 
another  defect  greater  than  the  one  corrected. 

The  decision  in  these  matters  yon  must  leave  to 
usy  for  we  are  doing  the  managing  and  the  worrying 
and  the  failing — if  there  is  any  failing  to  be  done. 
So,  when  your  suggestion  comes  (reasoned  out 
as  well  as  you  know  how,  backed  by  as  much  or 


as  little  confidence  as  you  have  in  the  suggestion), 
we  shall  take  it  up,  think  about  it,  see  what 
relation  it  bears  to  the  whole  business,  and 
accept  or  reject  it,  or  lay  it  aside  for  future 
consideration. 

YOUR    DUTY 

to  yourself  and  to  us  is: 

1.  If  you  don't   believe   in  our  policy    as    a 
whole,  resign;  because,  as  a  whole,  it  cannot  be 
changed  —  it  will  be  many  years,  if  ever,  before 
we  find  a  better.    But,  before  you  resign,  consider 
whether   there   isn't  something  the  matter  with 
you,  and  not  with  the  policy;  whether  you  had 
not  better  revise  your  own  business  ideas. 

2.  If  you   don't    believe    in    certain  parts  of 
our  policy,  tell  us  why  not  and  give  your  pro- 
posed substitute. 

3.  If  you    don't   believe    that    our    policy    is 
consistent,   if  you    believe   that   we   are  pulling 
two  ways  at  once,  say  so,  and  tell  us  which  part 
of  our  policy  you  think  interferes  with  the  main 
part. 

4.  If  anything  that  we  do,  if  any  of  our  pro- 


jects  or  methods  interfere  with  our  policy,  with 
the  harmonious  working-out  of  it,  criticise  them 
in  the  same  manner.  Give  your  reasons;  be 
frank  with  us  whatever  you  do;  don't  work  or 
talk  behind  our  backs. 


YOUR   OPPORTUNITIES. 

We  reprint  at  the  end  of  this  book  our  book 
written  to  the  employees  of  the  office  and  fac- 
tory, entitled  "Your  Duty  and  Your  Privilege." 

That  book  must  have  shown  you  that  the  field 
for  suggestions  is  great,  circumscribed  as  people 
in  offices  have  to  be.  Your  opportunities  are 
greater.  Where  they  can  make  one  suggestion 
you  can  make  a  dozen;  and  yours  should  be 
better  because  you  see  so  much  of  what  is 
going  on.  You  constantly  come  into  contact 
with  merchants  of  various  kinds  and  degrees  of 
ability;  and  you  surely  learn  a  great  deal  from 
them  that  would  be  useful  to  us. 


HOW   TO   GET   THEM. 
Send  your  suggestion  to  us  carefully  reasoned 


out  on  a  separate  sheet  of  paper.  Number  your 
suggestion.  Do  not  write  more  than  one  sugges- 
tion on  one  sheet  of  paper,  and  don't  forget  to 
sign  your  name. 

We  shall  make  three  typewritten  copies  of  your 
suggestion:  one  to  be  returned  to  you,  with  or 
without  comments,  to  show  you  that  we  have 
received  it  and  are  attending  to  it,  and  that  you 
may  keep  a  record  yourself;  one  to  be  put  in 
your  suggestion  file  bag  (we  open  a  new  file  for 
the  suggestions  of  each  salesman);  one  to  be 
used  to  accomplish  the  purpose  you  set  out  to 
accomplish,  if  we  think  best. 

At  the  end  of  this  book  you  will  find  a  page 
with  up-and-down  lines  on  it  and  your  name  at 
the  top.  Each  salesman  will  have  two  books. 
When  you  have  one,  we  shall  have  the  other. 
Every  BB  day  you  sent  your  copy  in  your  BB 
valise;  we  send  our  copy  in  the  BB  valise.  Every 
time  you  send  us  this  book  you  must  put  in  the 
proper  column  your  number  of  suggestions,  and 
the  day  you  return  it,  and  sign  your  name.  We 
shall  put  the  day  it  was  sent  to  you  in  the  proper 
column. 

Our  main  object  for  asking  for  these  sugges- 
tions is: 


1.  That    we  may   become    better  acquainted 
than  we  are  now  with  your  mental  capacity; 

2.  the  value   of   your   suggestions    in    them- 
selves; 

3.  that  you   may  be  given  full  opportunity  to 
let  us  know  what  is  hindering  you; 

4.  that,  if  nothing  is  hindering  you,  we  may 
count  on  your  full  co-operation. 


WHY   WE   WANT   WRITING   AND   NOT 
TALKING. 

Some  of  you  don't  think  you  can  write  letters; 
you  would  rather  talk;  are  embarrassed  by  the 
necessity  of  writing. 

So  are  we.  When  one  takes  a  pen  in  hand,  he 
thinks  he  must  write  like  Shakespeare  or  Carlyle. 
This  is  a  mistake.  Your  subject  is  not  the  same 
as  Carlyle's  or  Shakespeare's.  It  is  a  much 
easier  subject  to  write  about,  and  should  be  dealt 
with  even  more  simply  than  the  subjects  those 
great  and  simple  writers  dealt  with.  The  reason 
that  their  writings  are  impressive  is  that  their 
thoughts  are  impressive.  They  write  about 


grand  things;  but  they  write  simply  and  to  the 
point. 

Your  subject  is  not  one  to  inspire  impressive 
writing;  but  it  can  be  dealt  with  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  give  it  great  weight  —  simply, 
straightforwardly.  If  you  have  something  worth 
saying,  writing  is  better  than  speaking,  because 
writing  gives  us  the  chance  to  read  it  several 
times  and  get  all  of  your  meaning.  Besides  this, 
the  effort  of  writing  will  concentrate  your  mind 
on  the  matter  to  such  an  extent  that  you  will 
understand  it  yourself  more  thoroughly  than  you 
could  in  any  other  way. 

This  is  one  reason  why  we  lay  so  much  stress 
upon  Circular  Letters  and  send  them  to  you  all 
—that  you  may  read  them  over  several  times  and 
digest  the  ideas  more  thoroughly.  If  you  were 
here  and  we  should  talk  to  you  about  these 
matters,  you  would  probably  leave  our  office 
very  enthusiastic,  inspired  with  a  great  deal  of 
confidence  in  the  concern  and  its  methods;  but 
experience  has  shown  us  that  this  enthusiasm  is, 
in  general,  merely  a  reflection  of  our  own,  ami 
as  you  go  back  to  your  territory  you  gradually 
grow  cool,  and  don't  quite  remember  what  we 
said. 


When  you  see  the  ideas  written,  they  may 
appear  at  first  glance  not  so  impressive,  but  they 
gain  when  you  think  of  them  and  the  oppor- 
tunity of  more  careful  thought  is  furnished  by 
the  letter  in  your  hand. 

Another  reason  why  wre  write  you  the  letters 
instead  of  talking  to  you  at  the  office  is:  as  far 
as  possible  we  want  you  all  to  be  treated  alike. 
We  want  you  to  feel  that  you  have  the  same  sup- 
port from  us.  It  is  not  fair  that  those  gentlemen 
whose  territories  permit  them  to  visit  San  Fran- 
cisco freely  should  have  this  advantage  over  the 
others.  The  milk  of  human  kindness  will  flow 
into  business  (and  we  are  glad  it  does);  but  the 
basis  of  business  should  be  fairness,  and  fairness 
demands  that  we  follow  this  course. 

We  try  to  carry  out  our  business  on  fair  and 
scientific  lines — stating  the  facts  in  our  monthly 
statements  and  semi-annual  statistics,  and  calling 
attention  to  errors  whenever  you  make  them,  in 
order  that  they  may  be  corrected  and  that  things 
may  run  more  smoothly. 

We  do  not  write  much  to  praise  or  blame. 
We  write  for  business  purposes.  We  do  not 
think  it  necessary  to  applaud  our  men  when 
they  do  well,  or  to  scold  them  when  they  do  not. 


We  go  by  results  as  far  as  we  can;  and  what- 
ever we  may  have  to  say  in  praise  or  condem- 
nation, we  say  it  personally  to  you  during  your 
holiday  visit. 

We  assume  that  every  man  does  the  very  best 
that  his  physical  and  mental  and  moral  make-up 
will  permit.  But  if  one  man  is  not  doing  well 
on  his  territory  and  we  believe  that  somebody 
else  would  do  better,  it  is  fair  that  we  should 
make  the  trial,  for  we  pay  the  costs. 

We  may  be  wrong;  experience  will  tell. 

So  any  of  our  salesmen  who  is  not  doing  well 
may  expect  to  be  called  without  notice  to  San 
Francisco  for  a  plain  talk.  It  may  appear  that 
he  needs  more  information;  we  shall  give  it  to 
him.  Maybe  we  shall  send  him  right  back  to  his 
old  territory  again.  Maybe  we  shall  try  him  for 
a  while  in  a  new  territory  and  then  send  him 
back.  Maybe  we  shall  try  him  in  a  new  terri- 
tory and  keep  him  there.  Maybe,  if  he  has  been 
careless  in  details,  we  shall  give  him  a  little  office 
experience  to  show  him  the  value  of  accuracy. 
Maybe  it  will  appear  that  he  had  better  give  up 
his  place. 

In  the  mean  time  some  one  else  goes  out  on  his 
territory. 


OUR   RELATION   TO   ONE   ANOTHER. 

The  above  subject  touches  our  relation  to  you 
and  yours  to  us.  This  should  be  thoroughly 
understood  by  both  you  and  us. 

We  cannot  afford  to  have  you  worried  or 
discontented.  You  cannot  afford  it;  for  you 
cannot  do  your  best  work  under  these  conditions. 

If,  therefore,  the  policy  we  lay  out  for  you  to 
follow  is  such  that  you  cannot  take  hold  of  it 
with  full  heart,  and  if  the  compensation  you 
receive  is  so  inadequate  in  your  eyes  as  to  leave 
you  in  a  half-hearty  disposition  toward  our  firm 
and  toward  your  career  in  connection  with  our 
firm,  it  is  better  for  both  sides  that  we  part 
company. 

CAPITAL. 

Your  salary  is,  in  general,  what  we  believe 
you  will  earn.  Of  course,  with  new  men  we 
cannot  be  sure  that  they  will  earn  anything  at 
all;  but  they  have  got  to  live,  and  we  take 
the  risk. 

The  bonus  we  pay  you  at  the  end  of  the  year 
is  our  measure  of  the  value  of  your  services. 


There  is  every  reason  why  we  should  make  it  as 
near  right  as  possible.  It  is  to  our  interest  that 
you  should  be  valued  fairly.  If  you  are  a  first- 
rate  man,  we  cannot  afford  to  let  you  go.  If  you 
are  a  good  man,  we  cannot  afford  to  make  you 
less  good  by  making  you  discontented. 

We  may  make  mistakes  in  judging  you,  but 
we  mean  to  be  just.  We  don't  make  snap  judg- 
ments of  you.  Your  bonus  is  not  settled  in  two 
minutes.  It  is  settled  after  a  careful  examination 
of  what  you  have  done  and  the  way  in  which 
you  have  done  it.  Going  over  this  subject  once 
is  enough.  We  could  not  do  it  better  if  we  went 
over  it  again.  We  could  not  do  it  to  your  satis- 
faction unless  we  laid  open  to  you  all  the  facts 
of  the  business,  and  that  you  cannot  expect 
us  to  do. 

Of  course  we  are  assumed  to  be  in  close  touch 
with  your  territory,  etc,  and  yet  you  may  have 
additional  information  to  give  us  which,  in  your 
judgment,  has  a  bearing  on  your  bonus.  If  this 
is  the  case,  you  are  invited  to  give  the  particulars 
in  writing  before  December  2Oth.  Your  state- 
ment will  be  carefully  considered. 

On  the  ist  of  October  every  year  we  close 
our  sales-books  and  begin  to  prepare  statistics 


showing  the  amount  of  work  and  quality  of  work 
that  each  salesman  has  done.  On  the  ist  of 
December,  we  close  our  ledgers  and  take  stock, 
and  by  the  end  of  the  year  we  know  not  only 
what  each  man  has  done,  but  how  prosperous 
the  business  of  the  year  has  been. 

These  two  elements,  taken  with  the  way  in 
which  you  have  done  your  work,  attended  to 
the  matters  in  your  charge  (collections,  etc),  the 
condition  of  your  territory,  decide  the  amount 
of  your  bonus. 

If  the  bonus  we  pay  you  is  not  what  you 
think  it  ought  to  be,  you  should  either  make  up 
your  mind  bravely  to  convince  us  during  the 
following  year  that  we  are  wrong,  or,  in  justice 
to  yourself  and  to  us,  leave  our  employ. 

As  you  know,  although  we  have  been  paying 
our  employees  by  the  week  or  by  the  month,  the 
understanding  has  been  that  payment  by  the 
week  or  by  the  month  does  not  mean  engage- 
ment by  the  week  or  by  the  month.  In  other 
words  either  you  or  we  can  cancel  the  arrange- 
ment at  a  moment's  notice,  without  waiting  for 
the  week  or  month  to  expire;  and  you  are  to  be 
paid  only  for  that  part  of  the  week  or  month  that 
you  have  worked  for  us.  As  soon  as  you  make 


up  your  mind  that  your  best  interest  lies  else- 
where, you  should  be  free  to  go  elsewhere,  and, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  employees  generally  do.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  fair  that  the  employer 
should  have  the  same  privilege.  As  soon  as  it 
is  clear  to  him  that  a  salesman  is  not  useful  to 
him,  he  should  be  at  liberty  to  ask  him  to  leave. 

This  is  so  clearly  the  right  attitude  of  employer 
to  employee,  that  it  is  the  only  basis  we  have  had 
for  many  years  past. 

And  yet  business  courtesy  prevents  us  from 
following  this  rule  always,  without  regard  to 
circumstances;  and  business  courtesy  should 
also  modify  your  action  to  some  extent. 

If  a  salesman  leaves  during  the  year  he  will 
have  to  wait  for  his  bonus  until  bonus-time;  for 
we  cannot  afford  to  stop  our  business  to  prepare 
statistics  for  him. 

As  this  book  is  also  to  be  read  by  new  men, 
we  explain  that  our  employees  can  leave  their 
bonus  with  us  on  call  and  bearing  interest — they 
can  have  it  at  any  moment.  But  if  they  draw  it 
out  they  cannot  put  it  back  again.  If  you  leave 
your  money  with  us,  it  is  at  your  service  when- 
ever you  want  it. 


THE  BOND  BETWEEN  A  GOOD  HOUSE  AND 
A  GOOD  MAN  IS  STRONG. 

The  only  bond  that  ought  to  exist  between 
employer  and  employee  is  mutual  interest:  you 
cannot  afford  to  leave  a  good  house;  we  cannot 
afford  to  let  a  good  man  go.  When  any  other 
bond  exists  it  brings  with  a  false  and  an  imag- 
inary relation.  Although  we  believe  that,  on 
strict  business  principles,  we  ought  to  adhere 
closely  to  this  rule,  still  we  have  allowed  our- 
selves to  keep  a  man  in  our  employ  for  some 
time  after  he  showed  himself  to  be  of  not  enough 
use  to  us  to  justify  his  salary  and  expenses,  and  so 
long  as  we  are  human  we  suppose  we  shall  con- 
tinue to  let  our  softer  feelings  influence  us  to  our 
pecuniary  loss. 

You  should  not,  however,  out  of  good-will  to 
us,  make  your  career  any  less  effective  than  it 
ought  to  be.  You  should  be  free  to  quit  when- 
ever it  is  clear  to  you  that  you  had  better;  we 
should  be  free  to  discharge  you  when  it  is  clearly 
to  our  interest  to  do  so. 

We  say  this  to  show  you  that  it  is  proper  to 
have  laws  in  business  relation  that  must  be 
adhered  to. 


But  your  relation  to  us  and  ours  to  you  is  not 
one  merely  of  dollars  and  cents — it  is  not  the 
ordinary  relation  between  employer  and  em- 
ployee. A  salesman  for  our  house  is  not  a 
drummer.  He  is  not  a  clever  charming  fellow 
who  uses  his  personal  charm  to  get  an  order. 
He  is  entrusted  with  the  carrying  out  of  good 
policy — "gospel"  if  you  choose.  He  is  not  a 
drummer,  he  is  an  advocate.  He  represents  us 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  not  in  the  usual 
sense.  You  cannot  do  work  of  this  kind  without 
being  a  better  man  for  it. 

As  we  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  book: 
statistics  say  that  95  per  cent  of  men  engaged  in 
business  for  themselves  fail.  There  is  no  need 
for  you  to  fail — if  you  should  start  out  in  busi- 
ness for  yourself- — if  you  take  to  yourself  the 
principle  and  methods,  and  the  persistence  in 
those  principles  and  methods,  that  we  try  to 
inculcate  into  every  one  of  our  men. 

We  are  very  proud  of  this — personally.  Glad, 
we  should  say,  rather  than  proud;  for  it  is  a  great 
privilege  to  be  of  use  to  others. 

We  have  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  and 
thought  in  this  business,  kept  our  eyes  and  ears 
pretty  well  open.  All  this  could  not  fail  to  give 


us  experience;  and  the  best  of  this  experience 
you  will  find  suggested  in  our  books.  It  is 
yours  if  you  will  take  it.  You  will  find  it  useful 
no  matter  where  you  go;  whether  you  start  a 
retail  store  of  your  own,  or  work  for  a  concern 
similar  to  ours,  or  whether  you  set  up  a  shoe- 
store,  or  a  clothing-house,  or  whatever  mercan- 
tile business  you  engage  in;  because  all  business 
is  best  operated  on  certain  principles,  and,  if  the 
principles  under  which  our  business  is  operated 
are  not  the  very  best  that  can  be,  they  are  among 
the  best.  And  anyway,  if  you  learn  nothing 
more  than  that,  to  a  great  success  hearty  co- 
operation is  necessary,  you  will  not  have  spent 
your  years  in  our  employ  for  nothing. 

THE  SUM  OF  IT  ALL. 

To  sum  up:  it  is  to  your  interest  and  to  our 
interest  that  you  understand  and  be  faithful  to 
our  policy. 

If  you  are  hampered  in  any  way,  we  should 
know  of  it,  in  order  that  we  may  remove  the 
obstacle,  if  possible. 

Your  suggestions  are  valuable:  for  the  above 
purpose  and  to  show  your  worth. 


We  want  to  know  your  worth  and  to  appre- 
ciate it  and  to  pay  for  it.  We  want  you  as  long 
as  you  want  us  enough  to  do  your  part  loyally, 
intelligently,  and  effectively. 

We  are  not  talking  to  you  from  the  lecture 
platform;  there  is  no  sharp  dividing  line  between 
you  and  us.  There  is  success  to  be  won,  and 
that  success  is  to  be  won  by  what  you  can  do 
and  what  we  can  do.  We  furnish  capital, 
brand,  reputation,  executive  capacity,  organiza- 
tion, experience,  policy,  help  of  many  sorts,  and 
hard  work;  you  furnish  salesmanship, experience, 
faithfulness,  and  hard  work. 

A  strong  team  if  we  pull  together. 


The  following  pages  are  merely  a  reprint 
of  our  recent  book  to  our  office  and  factory 
employees.  Although  it  is  not  addressed  par- 
ticularly to  you,  it  is,  nevertheless,  an  important 
part  of  this  book — how  important  and  in  what 
way  depends  upon  you. 


WHAT  YOU  MUST  DO 
WHAT  YOU  HAD    BETTER   DO 

BETTER  YET 
PLENTY  OF   OPPORTUNITY 

HOW  TO    DO   IT 
YOU  ARE   BETTER  THAN  YOU   KNOW 


A  SCHILLING   &  CO 

SAN    FRANCISCO 


Copyright  1896  by  A  Schilling  &  Company 


UNIVERSITY 


Everybody  has  muscle;  some  people  have 
more,  some  have  less.  The  way  to  get  more 
is  to  use  what  you  have  already — to  take 
exercise. 

Everybody  has  brains.  The  way  to  get 
more  brains  is  to  use  what  you  have  already 
— to  think. 

Everybody  wants  to  get  ahead.  The  way 
to  get  ahead  is  to  move — you  can't  get  very 
far  by  standing  still. 


WHAT  YOU  MUST  DO 

You  are  given  certain  work  to  do.     That  you  must  do. 

If  we  promise  a  grocer  good  tea  and  sell  him  poor  tea, 
we  have  no  right  to  his  trade.  If  you  promise  us  good 
work  and  give  us  poor  work,  you  have  no  right  to  your 
place.  There  are  a  great  many  people  waiting  for  a  good 
place;  and  the  welfare  of  our  business  demands  that  good 
people  should  fill  these  places. 

WHAT  YOU   HAD   BETTER   DO 

But  maybe  you  can't  do  your  work  right;  maybe  you 
are  hampered  by  some  obstruction  that  ought  to  be 
removed.  Suppose,  for  instance,  we  tell  the  porter  to 
sweep  out  the  store.  He  is  a  good  sweeper  but  we  give 
him  a  poor  broom.  Suppose  he  knows  that,  if  he  has  a 
better  broom,  he  can  sweep  out  the  store  in  two-thirds 
the  time  and  do  it  twice  as  well.  Had  he  better  keep 


on  sweeping  with  that  broom,  or  had  he  better  tell  us 
that  we  are  not  furnishing  him  the  proper  tool? 

He  had  better  tell  us.  If  he  does  n't,  we  shall  think, 
and  keep  on  thinking,  that  it  is  the  man,  and  not  the 
broom,  that  is  to  blame. 

This  applies  to  you  also.  If  anything  stands  in  your 
way,  if  anything  keeps  you  from  filling  your  place  full, 
from  doing  everything  that  can  be  expected  of  you,  there 
is  a  chance  that  you  may  suffer  for  it.  You  cannot 
afford  to  take  that  chance. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  do  your  work  well,  if  your 
department  is  better  for  having  you  in  it,  if  you  pick  out 
the  flaws  (and  there  are  plenty  of  them)  and  show  them 
to  us,  you  will  be  known  to  us  as  a  faithful  and  intelligent 
worker.  You  will  not  be  forgotten. 

Are  you  doing  your  work  as  well  as  you  can  do  it?  If 
not,  whose  fault  is  it  ? 

If  the  fault  is  yours,  mend  it. 

If  the  fault  is  ours :  if  the  instruments  we  give  you,  if 
the  material  we  put  in  your  hands,  if  the  conditions  with 
which  we  surround  you,  hinder  you  from  doing  your 
best,  tell  us. 


We  want  you  all  to  have  opportunity  to  do  your  work 
exactly  right;  and,  if  you  have  not  such  opportunity,  it 
means  either  that  we  do  not  know  the  fact,  or  that  we  do 
not  see  a  practical  way  of  giving  it  to  you. 

If  you  know  the  fact  and  you  think  we  do  not,  tell  us. 
If  you  know  of  a  way  to  make  it  better,  tell  us. 

Your  work  takes  up  a  great  deal  of  your  attention; 
think  what  it  would  be  if  you  had  to  pay  attention  to  all 
the  departments.  You  could  not  possibly  know  every- 
thing about  them  all.  How  can  we? 

So  the  first  reason  why  you  had  better  help  us  correct 
the  mistakes  in  your  department  is:  it  enables  you  to 
work  better.  It  makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  suspect  you 
of  incompetency  when  you  are  competent. 

And  there  is  another  reason  why  you  should  make 
these  wrongs  right,  quite  as  important  as  this:  it  will 
make  you  better  known  to  us. 

We  (the  members  of  the  firm)  are  expected  to  judge 
every  one  of  you  accurately.  That  is  impossible.  There 
is  not  a  living  man  who  can  do  it.  We  cannot  be  sure 
that  we  estimate  correctly  the  value  of  those  who  are 
constantly  under  our  very  eyes.  How,  then,  can  we 


judge  you  perfectly  when  we  see  you  so  little?  We  can 
see  whether  your  work  is  done  right,  but  we  don't  get 
your  ideas.  Don't  you  want  us  to  have  them? 

Don't  you  want  to  be  understood?  Yes?  Then 
make  your  ability  and  thinking-power  known  to  us. 
Show  us  what  you  know  and  what  you  think  about  your 
part  of  the  business. 

Next  to  doing  your  work  right,  there's  no  way  so 
good  for  getting  ahead  in  our  business  as  making 
suggestions. 

BETTER  YET 

As  we  said  at  the  start,  the  thing  that  has  got  to  be 
done  is  your  work.  That  alone  justifies  your  being  here. 
If  we  did  not  think  that  you  had  intelligence  and 
faithfulness  enough  to  do  that,  you  would  not  be  here; 
but,  if  you  have  just  enough  intelligence  to  do  your 
work  and  not  enough  to  reach  after  higher  and  better 
work,  you  have  no  reason  to  expect  that  this  higher  and 
better  work  shall  be  given  you.  Success  comes  to  the 
man  who  does  his  work  well  and  looks  and  hopes  and 
thinks  and  acts  beyond  his  work. 


"  But,"  you  may  say,  "  I  cannot  act  beyond  my  work 
because  I  have  no  chance." 

This  is  exactly  what  we  want  to  give  you — the  chance 
to  think  beyond  your  work.  If  you  show  ability  to  think 
beyond  your  work,  that  will  imply  ability  to  do  beyond 
your  work;  and  we  have  plenty  of  things  for  good 
thinkers  and  good  doers. 

If  you  are  a  bright  capable  man  or  woman,  and  can 
see  flaws  (whether  in  your  department  or  in  another),  it 
is  to  your  interest  and  to  ours  that  we  should  know  it; 
it  makes  your  value  greater,  both  to  yourself  and  to 
us — especially  if  you  are  able  not  only  to  see  the  flaws 
but  to  see  how  they  can  be  overcome. 

There  is  any  amount  of  room  at  the  top  of  our 
business,  but  there  is  very  little  room  at  the  bottom ;  it  is 
overcrowded.  The  supply  is  greater  than  the  demand  — 
not  only  with  us  but  with  every  employer.  This  is  old 
and  true.  You  know  it,  but  very  few  realize  it. 

Can  you  think  of  a  better  way  for  us  to  find  out  what 
sort  of  stuff  your  mind  is  made  of  than  to  receive  and 
judge  your  suggestions  ? 

Shall  we  promote  a  person  simply  and  solely  because 


he  has  been  with  us  a  number  of  years;  or  shall  we 
promote  another  simply  and  solely  because  he  backs  his 
claim  for  unusual  ability  with  excessive  assurance  — 
assurance  in  words  without  assurance  in  deed — how 
about  the  modest  gentleman  or  gentlewoman  whose 
deeds  speak  louder  than  words  ? 

This  is  the  main  reason  why  we  want  you  to  make  the 
suggestions — to  develop  yourself  and  to  make  your  merit 
known  to  us.  We  know  of  a  good  many  of  those  flaws 
that  you  will  speak  of;  and  for  every  one  that  we  know 
of  we  have  some  remedy.  In  most  cases  our  remedy 
will  be  better  than  yours,  because  we  see  the  matter  in 
its  bearing  to  our  whole  business.  A  certain  suggestion 
that  you  may  make  may  be  excellent,  but  it  may  affect 
some  other  matter  that  you  do  not  know  about  so  un- 
favorably as  to  make  it  impracticable;  and  so  while  a 
suggestion  may  show  that  you  have  excellent  business- 
ability,  still  we  cannot  carry  it  out.  But  we  find  out 
your  mental  calibre  —  that  is  the  main  point. 

Each  employee  is  apt  to  think  that  his  own  department 
is  the  most  important  —  that  is  human  nature  —  and  so  it 
may  seem  to  you  a  shame  that  a  good  suggestion  of  yours 


should  not  be  immediately  carried  out.  But,  as  we  have 
said  before,  there  may  be  good  reasons  for  setting  aside 
these  good  suggestions.  So  do  not  be  discouraged,  if  a 
careful  suggestion,  the  result  of  your  careful  thought,  has 
no  other  effect  than  to  show  us  that  you  are  a  thinker. 

Dp  not  allow  yourself  to  think  that  we  do  not  mean 
this  literally.  We  do  mean  it  literally;  we  want  your 
suggestions. 

PLENTY   OF  OPPORTUNITY 

You  need  not  be  a  manager  in  order  to  make  sugges- 
tions. We  expect  suggestions  from  everybody,  for  every- 
body has  eyes  and  a  mind;  and  every  one  of  you  is  placed 
in  a  department  that  has  faults.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  perfection.  You  remember  what  we  said  about  the 
porter  and  his  broom.  It  would  be  very  easy  for  him, 
or  for  some  one  else,  to  suggest  that  we  give  him  a  better 
broom. 

This  small  matter  ought  to  suggest  to  every  one  of  you 
a  dozen  or  more  small  matters  that  we  are  doing  wrong, 
quarter-right  or  half-right.  We  may  or  may  not  be  using 
the  right  paper  in  certain  cases,  for  wrapping,  for  writing 


letters,  for  bookkeeping-books,  for  scribbling-paper.  Per- 
haps some  of  our  bookkeeping-books  are  too  large;  per- 
haps others  are  too  small.  Perhaps  the  binding  of  some 
of  the  books  is  too  weak  to  stand  the  ordinary  wear  and 
tear  of  every-day  handling,  and  perhaps  in  other  cases  it 
is  too  strong,  costs  too  much.  Perhaps  you  know  of  better 
nails  than  those  used  in  our  packing-department.  Do 
you  think  our  labels  are  just  right  ?  Do  you  see  any 
useful  change  that  might  be  made  in  them  ?  Do  you 
think  the  store  ought  to  be  swept  twice  a  day  or  certain 
parts  of  it  three  times  a  day,  etc,  etc  ? 

There  is  no  limit  to  the  amount  of  suggestions  that 
can  be  made  by  an  observant  and  intelligent  person. 

Try  it  and  see  how  it  works. 

HOW  TO   DO   IT 

How  to  make  suggestions. 

It  is  clear  enough  that  a  person  coming  frequently 
to  the  firm  with  good  suggestions  raises  himself  in  their 
esteem.  If  you  tell  your  immediate  superior  what  you 
know,  or  what  you  would  like  to  suggest,  you  cannot 


always  be  sure  that  you  will  get  credit  for  your  sug- 
gestion; he  may  think  of  something  to  add  to  your 
suggestion,  and  so  change  it  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
will  really  seem  to  him  to  be  his  own,  and  as  such  he 
will  feel  quite  satisfied  to  offer  it. 

This  is  not  fair.  Your  idea  was  the  basis  for  that 
idea,  you  started  him  thinking  in  this  direction.  Besides 
you  don't  want  your  suggestion  changed.  ,  You  want  it 
to  go  straight  to  the  firm  and  be  judged  on  its  own  merit 
as  your  thought,  and  as  showing  your  ability. 

The  following  is  the  system  we  have  laid  out  to  keep 
your  suggestions,  to  remember  how  good  each  one  was, 
what  it  applied  to,  and  who  made  it: 

You  are  to  write  your  suggestion.  If  you  simply  speak 
it,  we  shall  have  to  judge  it  in  some  cases  in  a  hurry,  or 
we  may  forget  it. 

Number  each  suggestion,  your  first  one  i,  your  second 
one  2,  your  third  one  3,  etc.  Do  not  write  more  than 
one  suggestion  on  one  piece  of  paper.  Tell  us  what  is 
the  evil  to  be  remedied;  why  you  think  a  certain  way  of 
doing  things  is  unsatisfactory  and  what  you  recommend 
in  place  of  it.  Give  your  suggestion  thus : 


Write  it  down  and  give  it  to  the  stenographer  of 
Office  B,  and  don't  forget  to  sign  your  name.  This 
stenographer  will  have  three  typewritten  copies  made, 
one  of  which  goes  to  you  for  a  twofold  purpose: 

I.  That  you  may  know   your    suggestion  has  been 
properly  copied. 

II.  That  you,  as  well  as  we,  may  have  a  record  of  the 
suggestion  you  have  made;    so  that  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  in  case  of  error,  you  may  obtain  credit  for  some 
suggestion  that  may  have  been  lost  or  forgotten. 

Of  the  other  two  copies,  one  is  to  be  filed  in  your 
filing-bag  that  has  your  name  on  it.  Every  one  will 
have  a  bag  of  his  and  her  own  and  from  time  to  time 
we  shall  not  only  judge  you  by  your  work  done,  but  by 
the  number  and  quality,  especially  quality,  of  the  sugges- 
tions in  your  filing-bag. 

The  other  copy  will  be  placed  on  Mr.  Schilling's  desk, 
whether  it  is  good  or  not,  and  will  be  graded  accord- 
ing to  its  merit.  That  grade  will  be  marked  on  the  copy 
in  your  filing-bag  also.  But  your  idea  may  be  exceed- 
ingly good  and  yet  not  be  carried  out  immediately. 
For  example,  if  you  suggest  a  good  change  in  the  ruling 


of  our  ledger,  that  change  will  be  made  when  we  have 
new  ledgers  made. 

As  you  know,  each  bit  of  stationery  and  each  label 
has  a  number  and  a  filing-bag.  One  copy  of  your  sug- 
gestion will  go  into  that  filing -bag;  and,  when  we  buy 
more  of  that  article,  your  suggestion  will  be  again  con_ 
sidered  and,  if  it  is  wise  to  adopt  it,  it  will  be  adopted. 
Hut,  if  you  make  a  recommendation  of  better  ink  or 
better  brooms,  etc,  etc,  that  recommendation  will  go  to 
the  person  who  buys  ink  and  brooms,  and,  as  we  said 
before,  one  copy  goes  to  you  and  one  goes  to  your 
filing-bag. 

YOU  ARE  BETTER  THAN  YOU  KNOW 

As  we  said  in  the  very  beginning,  everybody  has 
brains.  Most  people,  however,  in  subordinate  positions 
do  not  know  how  much  they  have.  -We  have  great 
faith;  we  believe  that  you  have  better  business-ideas 
than  you  get  credit  for.  Some  of  you,  of  course,  have 
not  so  much  opportunity  of  seeing  other  departments 
than  your  own  as  others  have,  and  from  such  we  do  not 


expect  as  many  suggestions  as  from  those  who  are  placed 
in  a  better  position  to  see  things. 

You  will  notice,  at  the  end  of  this  book,  four  columns: 
the  first  one  is  for  the  date  when  it  is  handed  to  you; 
the  second  for  the  date  on  which  you  return  it;  the 
third  for  the  number  of  suggestions  you  make  during 
the  intervening  period;  the  fourth  for  your  name. 

If  you  make  one  suggestion  or  two  or  a  dozen,  it  will 

appear.  If  you  make  none,  a  dash  ( )  will  be  put  in 

the  third  column.  You  are  to  sign  your  name  in  the 
fourth  column  that  we  may  know  you  have  received  the 
book  that  particular  month. 

We  do  not  believe  that  there  is  a  person  in  our  employ 
who  has  not  the  mental  capacity  to  make  a  suggestion. 
We  may  be  mistaken;  but,  whether  we  are  or  not,  we 
want  to  know  what  is  in  your  mind. 

If  you  have  a  bright  active  mind  we  want  to  set  you 
at  bright  active  work.  We  have  plenty  of  things  for 
bright  minds  to  do;  but  show  us  the  bright  mind  first. 


Name . 


Sent  to 
the  above 


Returned 
to  firm 


Number  of 
suggestions 


Signature  of  salesman 


Name. 


Sent  to  Returned         Number  of 

the  above     i       to  firm  suggestions 


Signature  of  salesman 


•~JLr 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


